First American Jailed With Drone’s Help..and NO warrant

North Dakota Cow Thief Is First American Arrested, Jailed With Drone’s Help

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That’s right: Rodney Brossart, a farmer from North Dakota, was located by Predator drone and arrested, Forbes reports. Sentenced yesterday, he is the first American to be sent off to prison thanks to drone assistance.
In June 2011, Forbes reports, police attempted to arrest him because he wouldn’t return three cows that had grazed onto his property. This resulted in “an armed standoff between Brossart, his three sons and a SWAT team” on his property. It ended only after the family of perps was located by a Predator drone borrowed from Customs and Border Patrol.
Mr. Brossart tried to have the case dismissed on the grounds that there was no warrant for the drone surveillance, but a federal judge rejected his motion.


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First, this is from a few years ago but it is the first jailed suspect to be caught by drone so it is a precedent.

Now, it is not that a drone was used but that there was NO NEED for a warrant to use a drone.

If it is withheld in Federal Court as it states then this is another slippery slope.....We don't need no warrants we have DRONES!!!

Under the regime in amerika warrents and rights are a thing of the past .. surprised they only jailed him rather than launching a missile from the drone.

reply to post by matafuchs


That's crazy, I think there needs to be a better process before deploying a drone. They should only be used in EXTREME cases, I don't think a farmer with his three sons and a couple of single barrels is really a crisis.

All that over three cows?

reply to post by matafuchs


Lets hope for some balance...lets find some lost family members with these drones...

Lets just shoot these insidious tools of totalitarian control out of the skies..........both figuratively, and literally.....
No warrants, no dice!
The people must be heard.....and the government forced to obey.....or we should destroy it.

The fact that this has been going on since 2011 shouldn't surprise me & yet it does...

What else have they been up to?

& Wait a minute...the cows wandered onto HIS property...what about the irresponsible cow owner who allowed them to do so?

What a violation of constitutional rights & waste of tax-payer money on the most trivial matter...

reply to post by matafuchs


Would the police have needed a warrant to go out in a helicopter or police car to look for the guy? Would they have needed a warrant to use tracker dogs to hunt him out?

reply to post by chrismarco


first they have to chip us...

The lnk really doesnt say anything but lets think a second.

3 cows is actually worth a lot of money.
Lets say you only own 3 cows and they get out and wander to the neighbors home. You sak nicely for them back and he won't deliver. You really don't want to shoot him so you call the police to resolve the issue. Results in an armed standoff.

Thats where the story gets odd. They must have bugged out or something, or why else need the drone?

So everybody against the use of the drone would have what else done? A human sneak around to look for the armed family?

Once you pull weapons on the police you are done. would you rather have a Navy SEAL team go in and kill them all over the cows?

You can stand on a mountain and look down on the Govt. (area 51) but the govt cant stand on the mountain and look down on you?

I bet the guy who owns the cows is happy. I bet if they were your cows you would be happy.

I'm thinking once you start an armed standoff against police, warrants arent really needed

Those cows have more rights than that farmer... But I see a probable cause, there is an owner to those cows! The cows are not estray, I bet the farmer is probably confused about captured livestock laws. Anyway, nothing can be done about technology that help capture idiots. If they didn't use a drone, they would of used a helicopter.... I have no probs about drones as long as they don't infringe our rights...

reply to post by lacrimoniousfinale


For surveillance, yes, there is usually need for a warrant. A cause. This is the issue with the NSA right now that they can monitor without a warrant. Look up FISA also.

If a drone was used in a chase to find someone I think that would fall into what you are describing.

In this case, based on the ruling, law enforcement can deploy a drone without consent from a court or governing body. With that precedent in place, the FEDS could have them flying everywhere 'looking' for whatever they want.

I hope that clears it up.

reply to post by BurningSpearess


Cows get out. Its a fact. Responsible cow owner or not, it happens. I have had many stray herds of cattle come by my house. does that mean I can shoot and slaughter them?

Ever have a dog wander off?

lacrimoniousfinale
reply to post by matafuchs

 

Would the police have needed a warrant to go out in a helicopter or police car to look for the guy? Would they have needed a warrant to use tracker dogs to hunt him out?

^^ This right here.

Not that I really like the idea of drones patrolling the skies. But hey, I don't see it any different than a helicopter or plane which police often use chasing robbery suspects. So this individual case kind of falls flat.

They caught Jesse James and the gang with a rc plane, get over it.

Actually, I have to retract that comment.

North Dakota Man Sentenced to Jail In Controversial Drone-Arrest Case
He is first American to be sentenced to jail following an arrest made possible by a domestic drone

By JASON KOEBLER
January 15, 2014 RSS Feed Print
Comment (126)


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North Dakotan cattle rancher Rodney Brossart was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday for terrorizing police officers who were trying to arrest him in 2011.
North Dakotan cattle rancher Rodney Brossart was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday for terrorizing police officers who were trying to arrest him in 2011.
The first American man arrested with the help of a Predator drone has also become the first man who will go to jail because of it.

Tuesday, Rodney Brossart, a North Dakotan cattle rancher, was sentenced to three years in prison, with all but six months suspended, for terrorizing police officers who were trying to arrest him at his property in 2011. The strange case garnered national attention because it was the first time a law enforcement agency had used an unmanned aerial vehicle to assist in carrying out an arrest.

[SEE: North Dakota Court Records Inquiry]

Brossart's trouble began in 2011, when six cows wandered onto his property. After Brossart refused to return the cows to their owner, the Grand Forks, N.D., SWAT team was called in to arrest the man. What followed was a 16-hour, armed standoff that eventually ended when the SWAT team called in a Predator drone on loan from the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Patrol. The drone was able to locate Brossart and his three armed sons on the property and let police know it was safe it make to make an arrest. Brossart was allegedly tased during the arrest.

At the time of his arrest, Brossart told U.S. News that he felt the use of the drone was illegal, and that he was "not laying over here playing dead" on his defense. His attorney, Bruce Quick, said that the use of the drone and the tasing constituted "guerrilla-like police tactics" and that the drone was "dispatched without judicial approval or a warrant."

The court disagreed: In July 2012, U.S. District Judge Joel Medd upheld the use of drones in the case, saying that "there was no improper use of an unmanned aerial vehicle" and that the drone "appears to have had no bearing on these charges being contested here." Medd refused to throw out the case. Tuesday, a jury upheld that decision, finding Brossart guilty of terrorizing police and acquitting him of theft and criminal mischief.

He was acquitted of theft and criminal mischief. He was jailed for "terrorizing police".

www.usnews.com...

But if the matter was a civil matter police shouldn't have been involved in the first place, and if he was acquitted of the charges that police claim was justification to raid his ranch, it seems like a huge overstep.

I don't understand why police were involved at all. While he kind of sealed his fate by telling them if they walked onto his property they wouldn't be walking off…

www.usnews.com...

I really don't have a position on this story besides thinking it is laughably, a waste of resources, and stupidity. And if you think about it, there must be another way to resolve a situation like this without such a gong show.

tinner07
reply to post by BurningSpearess

 

Cows get out. Its a fact. Responsible cow owner or not, it happens. I have had many stray herds of cattle come by my house. does that mean I can shoot and slaughter them?

Ever have a dog wander off?

Disturbingly so, in some places, it is legal to shoot "wondering dogs". I don't believe keeping them alive is allowed however.

dreamingawake

tinner07
reply to post by BurningSpearess

 

Cows get out. Its a fact. Responsible cow owner or not, it happens. I have had many stray herds of cattle come by my house. does that mean I can shoot and slaughter them?

Ever have a dog wander off?

Disturbingly so, in some places, it is legal to shoot "wondering dogs". I don't believe keeping them alive is allowed however.

There was a comment on one of the articles, (I don't know the validity) but someone mentioned that if an animal invades your pasture you gain lien rights to it until the owner covers cost of any damage they may have caused, etc.

The persons lawyer claims the laws regarding agriculture are "complicated".

tinner07
reply to post by BurningSpearess

 

Cows get out. Its a fact. Responsible cow owner or not, it happens. I have had many stray herds of cattle come by my house. does that mean I can shoot and slaughter them?

Am I missing something? Did the guy really kill the cows?
I kind of got the idea that he had been hosting/feeding the cows...& wanted to keep them because of the cost/time/value?

Ever have a dog wander off?

Sure, but my dogs are my priority & so I immediately execute a search, & recover quickly. That's just being responsible...

This is a dangerous precedent to set in my opinion. I firmly believe this is an invasion of our privacy, and is not Constitutional. But then again, the government has proven time and time again that it does not care about our rights. There are very specific examples, mainly starting in the 60's, and getting worse due to the technological advances since then.

In these circumstances would a helicopter need a warrant? How about a police car patrolling the neighborhood? These two modes don't need a warrant, do they? Especially in a stand-off situation. So you're saying here that a "helicopter" that is unmanned needs a warrant, but a helicopter that is manned does not?

I think you need to review when warrants are necessary.

The point here I am trying to make is that this sets precedent and an interpretation of the law that is enforced at a Federal level. Surveillance without a warrant is what it is.

I am not against drones for search and rescue, or chasing a bank robber or a car thief. These are immediate issues. However I do have an issue with eye in the sky surveillance that can be used without a warrant. Again, it is how one would read the law and in the legal world that is how it works.

That for surveillance, a drone can be called in without a warrant to me is not right. They cannot tap his phones to find him without a warrant. They cannot encroach upon his land without a warrant so why should local law enforcement be able to use one to scout your land without authorization? There was a case earlier this year where a man who was 'thought' to be preparing to create meth was arrested based on someone telling the police he 'may' do it. NO WARRANT.

So, in that same case, if they 'thought' he was going to do something and they used this as surveillance without a warrant, is that legal and/or should it be?